WHEELCHAIR users at Steeton and Silsden railway station currently face up to a 30-minute detour if they want to get to Leeds or Bradford.

Because there are no parking facilities on the Leeds/Bradford- bound side of the station, disabled passengers currently have two choices.

They can park on the Skipton-bound side and get to the correct platform via the station access road. They then have to go over the railway bridge, across Station Road, go up to the roundabout and down the disabled access route - a distance of about half a mile.

Or, they can get on a Skipton bound train, switch platforms in Skipton and catch the correct train to Leeds or Bradford.

Because the Steeton station has no facilities such as disabled lifts or ramps across the track, wheelchair users returning from Skipton are faced with the same problems.

Steeton-with-Eastburn parish councillor, David Mullen, who is himself disabled, said it was effectively two separate stations.

"It is a big problem. Anyone in a wheelchair has to go through the car park, along the access road, over the bridge to the roundabout, cross the road and along the disabled access footpath to the station.

"If you're in a wheelchair, it could take you an additional 30 minutes just to get to Leeds.

"If you were an elderly couple with one pushing, or if there was flooding, it could take even longer."

Coun Mullen said it was not just people in wheelchairs who faced an additional journey, but also people with pushchairs who were unable to tackle the station steps up to the bridge.

"The only solution would be to put lifts in for the disabled to take them from one platform to the other," he said.